Celebrating Slania
This is a special year for engraved stamp collectors like me as we are celebrating the centennial birth of Czeslaw Slania, a distinguished Polish engraver. Slania is the most productive stamp artist of all time as he designed and/or engraved 1,080 unique motifs that appeared on a total of 1,547 stamps issued by 32 postal administrations. 1,047 of these unique motifs were hand engraved on a steel plate and printed in intaglio.
Czeslaw Slania was born on 22 October 1921, in Czeladz Piaski, Poland. At age six, Slania displayed outstanding artistic talent, drawing the portraits of his family members and friends with great accuracy. His teenage years were full of struggles as he lived in a country invaded by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. His high school education was interrupted during the occupation years, and it was only after the liberation of Poland that he was able to finish his high school studies, and he started attending university in 1946. One of his professors, Vitold Chomicz, a renowned graphic artist, persuaded Slania to transfer to the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. This was a turning point in Slania’s artist career.
While still continuing with his study, in 1950, he was hired as an apprentice engraver at a branch of the Polish State Printing House where he was put under one of the senior engravers, Marian Roman Polak, who introduced him to engraving techniques and stamp production.
Stamp engraving process
What does the engraving an image for a postage stamp involve? It is the process of
